Patent Literature 1 discloses a pneumatic tire including a carcass and a belt structure disposed outside the carcass in a tire radial direction. The belt structure is formed by winding a ribbon composed of a plurality of cords in a spiral manner at an angle of approximately 0 degree with respect to a tire equatorial plane.
Unfortunately, the belt structure has the cords parallel to the tire circumferential direction, and tension acting on the cords in the area of a tread portion is absorbed in that area and is not transferred to cords in the adjacent areas. Accordingly, to reinforce the tread portion by the use of the belt structure as described in Patent Literature 1, it is necessary to wind the ribbon in parallel over the entire tread portion, causing increase in cord (material) costs.